MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



6 August, 1919.] 



-SIR HENRY REW, K.O.B. 



{Continued. 



SECOND DAY, 



WEDNESDAY, 6xn AUGUST, 1919. 



PRESENT : 

 SIR WILLIAM BARCLAY PEAT (Chairman). 



SIP. WILLIAM JAMES ASHLEY. 



DR. C. M. DOUGLAS, O.B. 



MR. G. G. REA. C.B.E. 



MR. W. ANKER-SIMMONS, C.B.E. 



MR. HENRY OVERMAN, O.B.E. 



MB. A. W. ASHBY. 



MR. A. BATCHELOR. 



MR. H. S. CAUTLEY, K.C., M.P. 



MR. GEORGE DALLAS. 



MR. J. F. DUNCAN. 



MR. W. EDWARDS. 



MR. F. E. GREEN. 

 MR. J. M. HENDERSON. 

 MR. T. HENDERSON. 

 MR. T. PROSSER JONES. 

 MR. E. W. LANGFORD. 

 MR. R. V. LENNARD. 

 MR. GEORGE NICHOLLS. 

 MR. E. H. PARKER. 

 MR. R. R. ROBBINS. 

 MR. W. R. SMITH, M.P. 

 MR. R. B. WALKER. 



SIR HENRY 



RBW, K.C.B., Assistant Secretary of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 

 Chairman < I tin- Agricultural Wages Board, Called and Examined. 



and Deputy 



/i : 1 will ask Mr. Smith to begin. 



4.'l'i. Mi. ,<n'//i : You refer in your /<'< i.< to a 

 number of statistics.* Are those available, as I do not 

 know that we have seen them;' Yes. they are. Per- 

 haps I should say that I am not, strictly speaking, 

 offering evidence at all, but I am simply presenting 

 myself here to the Commission telling them what 

 ligures and sources of information are available 

 which may bear on their inquiry. But -unless I 

 have any direct wish by the Commission to deal with 

 figures in some particular way I thought it was 

 hardly worth while my putting them together. The 

 Commission having to deal with the economic prospects 

 of agriculture. I did not know and do not know. of 

 course, how far they desire to go back on the past 

 history of agriculture with which these returns are 

 concerned. 



437. Chairman : Will you allow me to put in your 

 statement without reading it? If you please. Might 

 I just add, that I have enumerated therein five sets 

 of documents which may lie of interest to the ('oin- 



>n. To those I would like to add two pnblica 

 by ithe Board, one a report on " The Decline in 

 Uie Agricultural Population of Groat Britain between 

 !-^l and 1906"; and another, a report on "The 

 Migration from Rural Districts in England and 

 Wales," that being a report prepared in 1913, just 

 before the war. 



438. Will you put those in? Yes. 



439. Mr. Smith: In the investigations the Board 

 have made from time to time, i:, there anything ><\-nl- 

 able in the way of statistics or information bearing on 

 the cost of production in the industry? No. The sta- 

 tistics, generally speaking, do not throw any light on 

 the costs of production, that is. the costs of produc- 

 tion of particular crops. 



440. Is there any information available as to any 

 particular way in which the industry is handicapped 

 by the absence of any facilities ; I mean, such as trans- 

 port and things of that description? Is there any- 

 thing available at the Board which shows how far the 

 industry might be handicapped by lack of certain 

 facilities? I cannot think of anything definite that 

 could he supplied in the way of statistics on a large 

 scale. 



111. Could you tell us whether the Board have 

 recognised at any time that the industry is handi- 

 capped because of the absence of certain facilities or 

 machinery or anything of that kind? I am dealing, 

 of course, with statistics at the moment. I do not 

 know that the Board have recognised that the indus- 

 try i* handicapped bemuse of the absence of statistics 

 except in one respect, and that is that what is called 

 the census of production which was taken, so far as 

 agriculture is concerned, and also so far as industry 



'-"re A|ip'n<li\ No. I. 



is concerned, for the first time in 1908, a periodical 

 return of that description would, I think, be of con- 

 siderable value to the agricultural interest. It had 

 to be suspended during the war. We are hoping to 

 resume it as soon as circumstances are favourable. 



442. Is there information available from the Board 

 in regard to the cost of production in farming as 

 between the different kinds of farming? No. There 

 was a paper presented to Parliament, which no doubt 

 the Secretary of the Board dealt with yesterday, as 

 to the cost of growing wheat ; but beyond that, I 

 cannot say there arc any statistics available bearing 

 directly on the cost of production. You, of course, 

 are familiar with the report of the Committee of the 

 Wages Board that I am bringing to your notice; hut 

 that hardly can be described correctly as one of the 

 statistical returns of the Board of Agriculture. 



443. I suppose the Board were practically responsi- 

 ble for the framing of the Corn Production Act, when 

 it was introduced in the House of Commons as a Bill? 



I should prefer that questions of that nature with 

 regard to the preparation of the Corn Production Bill 

 were addressed to the Secretary. It so happens I was 

 not at the Board at the time. 



444. You could not give us any information on that 

 point? No; I should prefer that those questions be 

 answered by the Secretary. 



445. Could you tell us how far, in your opinion, 

 the industry is handicapped by the lack of adequate 

 transport? I think at the present moment agri- 

 culture, like all other industries, is very seriously 

 handicapped. In my belief the difficulties under 

 which we are suffering, speaking in the broadest 



. are very largely, if not mainly, difficulties of 

 distribution rather than of supply. 



446. And if there were an adequate system of trans- 

 port which enabled markets to be reached more 

 readily, it would be of considerable help and 

 advantage to the industry? Undoubtedly. 



447. Mr. Walker : Did I understand you correctly 

 to say that you are not altogether prepared to give 

 evidence apart from the returns mentioned in your 

 precis? I am open to answer any questions within 

 my capacity and within my scope. What I said was 

 that I was not prepared to answer questions with 

 regard to the share which the Board took in the 

 preparation of the Corn Production Act. 



448. I take it that we can have all those returns 

 sent to each Commissioner which you refer to here? 

 Certainly ; though all is rather a large, order. 



449. All referred to, I said? I do not know whether 

 you want all the annual returns since 1866. Any 

 returns tho Commissioners desire to have, of course, 

 they can have. 



450. Any particular one which we wish to have? 

 Certainly. 



